2013 Fundraiser

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Sunday, June 22, 2014

Hi friends! I was just looking over my blog posts and I cannot believe how few posts I have done this year! Sorry about that! Life has been busy for sure.

I just finished a two week hard training period and now thankfully I have a recovery week. I train two weeks hard and then one week recovery. This last week was an incredibly good training week for me. My weekly yardage totals were the highest I've gotten to thus far this year. My shoulders are holding up well and I also feel I did great on sleep and eating this week too. I've gotten into a nice schedule of being in bed by 8pm and up at 4:45 am.

I'm about eleven weeks out from this year's big swim-Enduring Waves for Isabella on September 5, 2014. I will be swimming Flathead Lake again this year-which I am excited about because it feels like my "home" lake (so I will have the home lake advantage). The rough plans at this point are a 24 hour swim beginning early Friday morning. I'm going to do a perimeter swim of the lake and if I am feeling good after 24 hours, I just might keep going. :)

I have my obvious goals that I set out to reach with each charity swim I do: 1)swim as far as I say I am going to, and 2)raise a lot of money for our EWF kiddo! This year I have a couple of "sub-goals" as well. First I've been working since January 1st to get down to "race weight" which I describe as my college swimming weight. Last year I didn't give too much concern about weight, and in fact I was actually okay with putting on a little weight because I thought it would keep me warmer for my non-wetsuit swims. I ended my season last year heavier than I had ever been before and I frankly just wasn't feeling too great about it. Since January 1, 2014 I have already lost 25 pounds-which is excellent….still have a bit more to loose to get back to "race weight" but I'm sure feeling a lot healthier than I felt last year.

My second "sub-goal" is not to let "too many cooks in the kitchen". This is one thing I really wanted to improve on from last year. Last year I had too many "advisors" giving opinions on my training and related items. Bottom line, at this point, I know exactly what it takes for me to be successful at a long endurance swim. I'm focusing on my knowledge of my body and what works for my training and nutrition. So far, this has been working out well for me this year.

I also chose a late season swim date this year. My other swims have all been July or August. I really wanted to get more training time in-which I think was a good move particularly this year, as our winter seemed to hold on tight here in Montana. I didn't begin swimming outside until June (whereas I am usually outdoors in May). My only concern with the late season date for the swim is the water temperature, but I've been doing my best to get acclimated to cold water training swims (coldest so far this year has been an hour swim in 52 degree water).

After the week of near non-stop rain here in Kalispell, it was sure nice for the sun to come out for the weekend! Here's hoping it sticks around for a while now!

Sunday, June 8, 2014

I am very pleased to announce that the Enduring Waves Foundation has selected 5 year old Isabella Allred as the beneficiary of our 2014 fundraising efforts.

Isabella is a five year old from Polson, Montana. In August of 2013 Isabella was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. This news was particularly hard given that just one and a half months earlier, Isabella's cousin was diagnosed with Burkitt's Lymphoma.

Isabella is roughly eight months into her two and a half year treatment to fight this cancer. Her treatment has required two lengthy stays in Spokane amounting to four months. The other four months has required trips back and forth to Spokane every other week for treatments. While the next stage of her treatment will involve a different schedule, Isabella will continue to require trips to Spokane for her treatment.

Our fundraising this year will specifically be used to pay any medical expenses not covered by insurance, travel for treatment and associated expenses. The foundation also hopes to assist with the purchase of a softer bed for Isabella. The chemotherapy causes ISabella's joints to hurt and she complains her bed hurts her body even worse because it is so hard. A softer bed would hopefully ease with some of this pain.

While Isabella's mom works full time, when Isabella got sick, her dad had to quit his job. The financial difficulties of relying on one income while traveling so often for treatment have placed additional stress on this family. The Enduring Waves Foundation hopes to offer some peace of mind to the Allred's by easing some of this financial stress.

My swim for Isabella will take place September 5-6 in Flathead Lake, Montana (weather permitting), but our campaign for donations starts NOW. :) So click on the "donate now" button to the right to donate money for Isabella!